Nearly nine out of ten small law firm websites fail to meet Google's benchmark for good mobile speed, according to a new study released by Constellate, a marketing research firm that works exclusively with law firms. The study, which analyzed 80 firm websites across five fast-growing markets, found that most sites take too long to load on mobile devices, putting firms at risk of losing potential clients who search on their phones.
The study tested firm websites in McKinney, Texas; Castle Rock, Colorado; Naples, Florida; Carmel, Indiana; and Cary, North Carolina—communities where new residents often need lawyers and turn to mobile search. The median mobile PageSpeed score was 60 out of 100, which falls into Google's "needs improvement" range. Seventy-one of the 80 sites (89%) scored below 90, the score Google considers good. More than half, 52 sites (65%), landed in the 50-to-89 range, while 19 sites (24%) scored below 50, which Google labels "poor." Only 9 sites (11%) achieved a score of 90 or above.
Load times were equally concerning. In Google's mobile test, the median site took 7.4 seconds to display its main content. Google rates a load time over 4 seconds as poor, and 58 of the 80 sites (73%) crossed that threshold. Castle Rock, Colorado, had the lowest median score at 56, while Carmel, Indiana, led the group with a median of 74, and a quarter of its sites scored 90 or above.
"Most people search for a law firm on their phone, no matter what kind of legal service they are looking for," said Bruce Kreutzer, Partner and VP of Growth at Constellate. "Seven seconds is a long time to wait. They call the next firm. Most small firms never see this happen, because nobody shows them the number."
The implications for small law firms are significant. With mobile searches dominating consumer behavior, a slow website can directly translate into lost cases and revenue. Firms that fail to optimize for speed may be invisible to potential clients who abandon slow-loading pages. The study underscores a growing gap between firms that leverage data to monitor and improve their digital performance and those that remain unaware of their shortcomings.
"We built Constellate on one idea: law firm marketing should run on real data, measured as it happens," said Chris Bardos, President of Constellate. "This is the first in a series. Search is changing fast, especially with AI answers, and the firms that know their numbers will adapt first."
The study tested home pages using Google PageSpeed Insights (Lighthouse) with mobile settings in September 2026. Two sites could not be scored and were excluded. Scores were grouped by Google's published bands: 90 to 100 is good, 50 to 89 needs improvement, and below 50 is poor. Load time refers to Largest Contentful Paint, Google's measure of when a page's main content appears, compared against Google's 4-second threshold. Individual firms were not named.
Constellate, which builds and manages websites, SEO, and generative engine optimization for firms with 1 to 25 attorneys, offers a data pipeline that tracks site performance in real time. More information is available at constellate.com.
